1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to a patient controlled personal medical information product.
2. Description of the Related Art
Medical science has created many new methods, treatments, and medications to extend and improve the lives of people. However, this has resulted in a significant increase in the medical information that a person must be aware of in order to maintain their health, and get the best benefit from these medical improvements. For example, people over the age of 55 consume a daily average of 7 different prescription medications. Each medication requires specific instructions, including warnings on correct consumption and possible side effects. Because there is such a significant increase in the amount of medical information that a person must know, such as proper use and consumption of these medications, errors can occur that adversely affect treatments and/or counteract or minimize the beneficial impact of the medications. At worst, serious injury or death has occurred due to incorrect treatments. One estimate from data shows 28% of hospitalizations are a result of xe2x80x9cadverse drug eventsxe2x80x9d and this costs the health care industry $76 billion annually (CU Doctor Sues Firm . . . Rocky Mountain News, Jun. 8, 1998).
Problems arise when either the person making the prescription, filling the prescription or consuming the prescription makes an error, or provides information that is not understood by one of the other parties in this xe2x80x9cmedical information trianglexe2x80x9d or circle. These errors can be from transcription, misinterpretation, or insufficient information available. The most common patient originated errors are:
(a) taking incorrect doses
(b) taking doses at wrong time
(c) forgetting to take a dose
(d) stopping medication too soon
(e) taking dosage improperly, causing interactions
To date, some solutions to help patients manage medications have been developed. Generally these solutions fall into two categories:
Patient Based Products
These products are reminder pill boxes and auto dispensing mechanisms. They are difficult to program, configured for a very limited number of medications, and too cumbersome to be considered a portable personal device. In particular, they did not easily link into the medical information chain and allow the physician and/or pharmacist to interact with the patient, nor did they provide complete medical information.
Medical Organization Based Products
These products are database systems run by hospitals, health maintenance organizations (HMO""s) or health insurance companies. They are systems tied to these large organizations, with significant computer hardware requirements and no portability. Typically they are accessible only by physician/hospital personnel or pharmacists. In particular, the patient has no ability to control or read information at their discretion.
A system in accordance with the present invention includes a device for a patient to use to better control implementation of medication therapies. The device will, among other functions, track and display:
(a) medication name and purpose
(b) dosage, frequency and duration
(c) possible side effects
(d) record of medications taken
(e) special instructions for taking medications, such as with or without meals, fluids, avoiding sunlight, etc.
Besides information about medications, it is important for a patient to have a brief medical history that can be provided to health care providers, have a log of consumption for their medications, and maintain information about who their physicians, dentist, pharmacies, insurance providers are, and personal contact information. This data is considered critical not only during typical interaction with health care providers, but particularly in emergency medical situations. Any device that is capable of tracking the medication data a patient needs should also be capable of tracking all these other health related data.
However, it must be recognized that this medical information loop includes other personnel, as an example, physicians and pharmacists. Thus any device must be capable of allowing them to read patient data, and input information, and it must not require any significant time for them to accomplish this. In particular it must blend with day to day activities of the health care provider.
Any solution to the problem must recognize this medical information chain that primarily consists of the patient, the health care prescriber (typically the physician) and health care provider (for example, the pharmacist). The information in this chain is created on a per patient basis, making the patient the natural repositor for the information, with the prescriber (the physician) being the initiator of the information, and the provider (the pharmacist) being a source of complementary information so it is in a form useful to the patient. Thus the product must work with both medical terminology and layman""s terms to promote optimum benefit of treatments and medications.
An additional requirement of any product that contains medical history information is security. Thus any product must provide maximum protection of data from access by unauthorized persons. Although many devices use PIN""s to limit access and a PIN or password would be necessary for this product, the nature of the data in a device such as proposed here should also protect the data via encryption.
The present invention is a system of component devices that provides proper information to the patient to get maximum benefit from their medications, tracks medication consumption, and facilitates transfer of critical data for optimal care of the patient. It is capable of managing information, in a highly portable form for an individual patient. The system in accordance with the present invention performs and/or facilitates the following functions:
(a) Provides a record of prescription information;
(b) Maintains current and historical personal medical data;
(c) Creates and maintains a historical log of pharmaceutical agent consumption;
(d) Warns patient of side effects, interactions, and other special instructions, especially when scheduled medication times are missed or modified; and
(e) Provides a vehicle for interchange data among various individuals and groups involved in patient care such as patient, physician, pharmacist, emergency medical personnel and hospital personnel.